I am unable to take still photos using my SONY HDR-TG1. All other functions are working expect when you press the still photo buttom (both in photo 4:3 and video 16:9 mode) nothing happens. It seems that this is a common problem with this model. SONY are you listening?

With one Sony HDR series camcorder, you can capture your daily life, recorded much good time. But you want to import some movies to editing softwares like iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Avid, Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Express etc on mac for further editing, sometimes you maybe in a trouble that sony HDR videos can't be imported to them directly.
To solve this problem, let us learn something first. Sony HDR series camcorders are High Definition Models. Most of sonny HDR camcorders create avchd or avchd/mpeg-2 videos. But the files extension may be different. The output format of HDR-SR12 is mpeg, the output of Sony HDR-SR10, Sony HDR-SR11, Sony HDR-XR100, Sony HDR XR-500V, Sony HDR-TG1, Sony HDR-CX7, SDR HDR-SR5 are .mts file. So the first step you should do is convert your sony videos to the other video formats which can be supported by editing software on Mac, such as .mov, .mp4 etc.

Mac Sony HDR Video Converter is a professional software which specially designed for solving this problem. Sony HDR Video Converter Mac can help you convert your original sony videos not only .mpeg but also .mts/m2ts videos to other pop video formats such as mp4, wmv, mpg, mkv, mov, etc. Finishing your flexible conversion just in several mouse clicks and there is no need to worry any quality loss.

With Sony HDR Video Converter for Mac versatile powerful function, you can edit your sony HDR videos more choices, like crop video area, set video brightness, contrast, and saturation effects, and customize video/audio output settings, trim sony HDR video length. Then you can put your videos on portable devices for playing, like PSP, iPod, iPad, iPhone, iPhone 4 etc. Creating yourself personalized videos and enjoy them by using Sony HDR Video Converter for Mac.
http://www.ilifesoft.com/how-to/convert-sony-hdr-video-on-mac.htm

Transfer/Edit Sony HDR-TG3 1080i AVCHD Videos on Windows/Mac

Sony Handycam HDR-TG3E is a super small camera with full HD recording on Memory Stick in 2008. It includes 4GB and 10x optical zoom for capturing 1920x1080 and 1440x1080 videos. However, this camera does not include progressive recording mode, which indicates that the HD videos are 1080i. Even though it is compact camera, the audio is recorded in Dolby Digital 5.1ch. You can also take 2.3Mp stills while you are recording video footage.
Sony HDR-TG3E features:
- 1920x1080i HD video recording
- 4 megapixel still photo recording
- Dual Rec simultaneous 2.3 megapixel still photo during video recording
- Handy face detection
- Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens
- ClearVid CMOS Sensor and Exmor derived technology
Videos from Sony HDR-TG3E:
Movie Format:
- High Definition: AVCHD (1920 x 1080, 1440 x 1080) in .mts filename extension
- Standard Definition: MPEG2 in .mpg filename extension
Movie Quality:
- HD: FH (1920x1080i, 16Mbps) / HQ (9Mbps) / SP (7Mbps) / LP (5Mbps)
- SD: HQ (9Mbps) / SP (6Mbps) / LP (3Mbps)

Transfer & Edit Sony HDR-TG3 AVCHD videos:
For Windows users:
Install the Picture Motion Browser (PMB) from the bundled CD in box, and connect Sony HDR TG3 to PC via USB cable. Use Sony PMB to download HD .mts videos from camcorder to PC.
For Mac users:
You can capture and transfer Sony HDR-TG3 1080i videos to iMac/MacBook Pro via iMovie after connecting camera to computer with USB cable. However, you may face problem when trying to log and transfer AVCHD videos from Sony Handycam HDR-TG3E to Final Cut Express (FCE) 4 or Final Cut Pro (FCP) 5. After transferring HD .mts videos from camera to computer hard drive, just run Aunsoft MTS/M2TS Converter for Mac as the Mac Sony HDR-TG3 MTS converter to deinterlace .mts videos and convert .mts to .mov for FCE and FCP, if you want to edit HD videos.
Alternative way to transfer HDR TG3 videos for Mac and PC:
Just connect HDR TG3 pocket camera to computer via the USB cable, and the HDR TG3 will display as a hard drive on computer. Navigate to the HDR TG3 hard drive to access the memory stick.
Tips: Sony Handycam HDR-TG3E is the model for Europe, and Sony Handycam HDR-TG1 is the model for US.